Monday, December 12, 2011

The tragedy is that McMullan - when he had the chance to - didn't call for a public C. diff inquiry in Niagara

Not that long ago - just back in June, 2011 - the St.Catharines Standard's Jeff Bolichowski had interviewed Brian McMullan about the then-current C. diff crisis in Niagara.

McMullan was being used as the Standard's stand-in proxy for local Liberal MPP Jim Bradley, who, as we all by now know, had conveniently disappeared from the scene during Niagara's 2011 summer of C. diff death. (Bradley never once was the subject of any in-depth interviews by the shameful St.Catharines Standard, about the C. difficile crisis in Niagara - from at least May of 2011 to Dec. of 2011 - there was nothing!!)

The Standard reported at the time:

McMullan,
meanwhile, said he wants to know why the outbreak happened and how to prevent it
from happening again."I think we're all anxious
about the situation," he said. "The fact that there's been any loss of life is
tragic."

So - let's see: will the Standard's boss Wendy Metcalfe now assign Bolichowski to follow up with McMullan, to ask about how many "answers" he had actually received about how to 'prevent a C. diff outbreak from happening again'?

Because, well... another C. diff outbreak HAS 'happened again' in Niagara - and McMullan has come up with no answers at all.

McMullan DID NOT bother to immediately call for a public inquiry in the last C. diff outbreak, which killed over 30 Niagara patients; apparently it wasn't that important for McMullan to 'get the answers'!! All McMullan was interested in was to spew some rhetoric so as it would appear he gave a whit about any of this.

Did McMullan ever bother to ask Jim Bradley about the C. diff deaths? We are "anxious" to find out!

Why isn't McMullan calling on Bradley, publicly demanding that an independent inquiry be called into this CONTINUING C. diff horror in Niagara?

What specifically is the 'tragedy' about these deaths? Did the patients bring death upon themselves, because of their own personal flaws? Is that what McMullan meant: that the patients had tragic flaws which led to their own downfall?!?! ...y'know... like, they got sick, and foolishly thought that they would be safe in a McGuinty-monopoly-run hospital? Or, that they foolishly thought that Jim Bradley's Liberal healthcare duplicity would never victimize them... ... ..? [...or was McMullan referring to the 'tragedy' that we re-elected Liberal liars once again?!]

This was no tragedy - it was negligence then, and it is still negligence again. The patients were Liberal monopolyvictims - and we have been given no answers.

Why did a C. diff outbreak occur once again, especially after McMullan's bluster about 'getting all kinds of answers so this wouldn't happen again', the first time?!?

How did the NHS allow this to slip through again? Will the Standard be interviewing the LHIN about their role in allowing the C. diff outbreak to recur?

This is a crime being perpetrated in an unaccountable Liberal-monopoly-run health system, time and again; those in charge spew meaningless assurances but hide from and do not bother calling for an inquiry to examine these deaths, while the monopolist politicians who control the health system are protected from liability.
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